Winter Cold
by Chronicles of Lewis
Summary: In another story published on the Anne of Green Gables category called 'One Night', Barney takes care of Valancy while she is very sick. In this version, it is Barney who is not well. This was very briefly referred to in the original novel. I've just had a little fun imagining more into the scene. Both characters are the copyrights of LMM & others, they're only borrowed here.


Winter Cold

The winter wind whirrs a frozen calling as it pushes against the outer frost lined window panes of the cozy warm kitchen. Valancy attempts to ignore the inner chill that pervades her senses more so for worry over Barney than the cold January snow storm outside.

She stirs a warm vegetable soup and adds a dash of wild spice without using any proper measure. The next task at hand is to unpack the paper bag still sitting on the table. Valancy had made a trip on her own earlier in the day while Barney was resting to consult a pharmacist about the best cold medications and herbal remedies to use. All the vegetables and herbs for making the soup were already unpacked which left only three items in the bag; a vial of red thick fluid for congestion, a blue box of headache powders and a commercial elixir of 'Dr. Redfern's Cold Remedy'. _"One can't be to modest for medicine when it comes to their failing health."_ Her mother used to say and still would had she not refused to speak to her daughter since "_that scandalous backwoods marriage which has brought ignominious shame to the entire family_."

Between her mother and her live-in cousin at home, they have stored away more types of medicines than a hospital during a viral epidemic. Valancy never much cared for Dr. Redfern's remedies. The mocking goofy grin on his oval framed face on every confounded bottle reminded her of a chipmunk, attempting to smile with great joy about having two acorns suddenly shoved into his mouth at once. She could recall the praises for its 'restorative effects' that her cousin had sworn by while swallowing it or rubbing it vigorously into some better off to be unknown part of her body. As much as that brand brought back odious memories, Valancy was willing to do and get whatever it took to make her husband feel well again.

He is awake now. Another restless coughing fit is heard from the space of their dark bedroom. It is worse than the one that greeted her arrival home at sunset, only a mere hour ago. She returns to the stove and pours hot tea into a short mug. Barney enters the kitchen wrapped in a frayed white and black squared quilt and looking "_worse for wear_" as her mother also used to say.

"What are doing up and about? You should be resting."

"Can't sleep." He struggles to say. "Is the snow still falling?"

"Even more so than before. The flakes are like cotton balls now."

Barney begins to cough again. Valancy enfolds his shaking frame in her arms until he stops.

"Now, I won't have you catching the pneumonia on my watch. Drink this—" She gives him the steaming mug of tea.

As he drinks the herbal scented fluid, his eyes drift to the kitchen table. His expression hardens. With haste, he gets out of Valancy's supporting embrace and takes a hold of the Redfern elixir. His quilt falls to the floor looking like a melting chess board. Valancy is shocked and confused at his sudden energy and reaction. He had seemed so weak until right now. She gathers up his treasured quilt as Barney flings open the back door and pitches the bottle into the snow blanketed yard. It clinks against a tree and snow cascades from high atop its dark branches. Banjo the cat scurries out from underneath it with a disapproving yowl. Valancy had forgotten that she had let him out earlier. A cold wind whirls in as Banjo runs in the door with a wet leaf stuck to his tale. The leaf transfers over to her husband's foot.

"Barney?"

"Bring no more of that devilish stuff in here!"

The door closes with a slam. She gives the quilt back to him. He throws it over his shoulder and begins to leave for the bedroom. She stoops to pick the wet leaf from his heel. He doesn't even notice. She wonders if he has become delirious and that mocking grin from the good old Doctor on the bottle has pushed him over the edge.

"I — I'm sorry. At home, we've always had—"

As he reaches the darkness of the hallway, he turns back to her and runs a hand through his tousled hair.

"I worried about you crossing that ice *cough* out there all alone today and it has put me *cough* in a rough mood tonight."

"I understand."

Valancy says although she isn't honestly sure about what she is supposed to be comprehending.

"No. I can't expect you know what I've been through." He explains with a raspy effort.

Valancy still isn't quite following his meaning. She had been out across the frozen waters many times before while he was within the confines of his Bluebeard's chamber on their island. Surely, he had noticed that and said nothing of it before. This mood wasn't like him and somehow it was exactly like him too. This strange behavior is concluded when he offers his hand to her and she takes it without fear of catching cold herself. He wraps his arm with quilt and all around her shoulders.

"I am grateful to have you here, Moonlight. You've been very—" he suppresses his urge to cough again. "thoughtful this afternoon."

"Now that, I understand." She laughs lightly. "Get back into bed, I'll wake you when the soup is ready."

He lowers his head and growls into her neck.

"Now, go, hibernate, you're turning into a bear tonight." She pushes him softly into their bedroom.

His raspy low laugh is all that she hears from within the dark room.

Later, she remembers the bottle of medicine out in the yard. She puts on a shawl and goes out into the snow to retrieve it. How can she get rid of it on an island? She decides that the best place for the smiling chipmunk doctor for now is with the other chipmunks under the back porch until a time when she can take it off the island and forget about the strange incident or seeing Dr. Redfern's mocking grin ever again.


End file.
